Ekiti residents protest power outage

Youths in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, protested yesterday three months of power outage in the community.

Around 10am, they barricaded the only major road in the town, which links Ikere to Akure in Ondo State, causing a traffic gridlock.

Appeals by a commissioner and the town’s Divisional Police Officer to the youths to open the road were ignored.

A woman, who did not want to be named, said: “Since January, there has been power outage in Ikere and nobody knows when it will end. That is why the youths are protesting.”

Mr. Salisu Olusola, said: “The Benin Electricity Distribution Company said the town owed a huge amount as unpaid bills, out of which we paid N15 million, but electricity was not restored.”

Another resident, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “The N15 million was paid to the local government council, but the council did not remit it into the account of the Electricity Distribution Company. The company is not wrong to insist that the money should be paid before electricity is restored.”

Police spokesman Victor Babayemi said: “When we heard about the protest, we deployed our men there to prevent it from getting out of hands. The youths are protesting continuous power outage in the town. We are managing the situation. We are not arresting anyone for this as we believe the youths have a constitutional right to this, as long as they remain non-violent.”

It was gathered that Ise-Ekiti and Emure-Ekiti have also had power outage for about three months.